Who Gets Sleep Apnea?

Sleep disorder suffers come in all shapes and sizes. Typically, sleep apnea was thought to affect middle age, overweight men, but, today we are finding there are many men and women, often very slim, that have sleep breathing disorders other than apnea, affecting their sleep quite negatively.

Sleep Apnea

Often people who suffer from sleep apnea don’t even know of their condition. They may realize that they snore, and feel overtired or fatigued, but are unaware of the potentially serious medical problems which may exist.

What’s more, those that do know they have sleep apnea, may not know that dentists can now successfully treat it using oral appliances. Until a few years ago, the only treatment for sleep apnea was CPAP, short for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. CPAP involves the wearing of a facial mask, where as, an oral appliance is similar in size, and shape to a night guard, or sports guard. Patients find it much easier to wear an oral appliance, as it’s smaller and more comfortable than the CPAP apparatus.

Sleep apnea is responsible for a long list of medical conditions that result from a chronic lack of oxygen. These include, but are not limited to:

• Heart attacks
• Stroke
• Diabetes
• Impotence
• Depression
• Severe Anxiety
• Memory and concentration impairment
• Sudden Cardiac Death
• GERD (acid reflux)
• Bruxism (tooth grinding)
• Cardiac arrhythmia
• High Blood Pressure

Successful management of sleep apnea, greatly improves the quality and length of a patients life.

Snoring

Snoring is a sign that something is wrong with your breathing during sleep. It means that the airway is not fully open and the snoring noise that you make comes from efforts to force air through the narrowed passageways. Snoring is sometimes referred to as airway obstruction or obstructive sleep apnea. Apnea is the cessation of breath during sleep. Snoring and Sleep apnea increases the risk for stroke, heart attack and hypertension. With the use of custom-fitted mouth appliances, Dr. Huxtable can hold the jaw in the proper position to keep the airway from collapsing. Whether it’s you or your child that suffers from this disorder, Dr. Huxtable may be able to help you before it leads to permanent damage.

Treating Sleep Disorders

Did you know the most conservative treatment for snoring, sleep apnea and other sleep breathing disorders, is having a dental appliance made to wear during sleep? This gently moves the lower jaw forward causing positive changes in tongue position and airway. If you are not getting enough sleep due to a sleep disorder, Dr. Huxtable can do a comprehensive sleep assessment to help guide you in determining the cause. She is very experienced in treating sleep disorders with oral appliances and her extensive knowledge in treating TMJ disorders, ensures that your jaw remains comfortable. Oral appliance therapy can help people with various airway resistance problems, not just sleep apnea.